Meet a Woman Engineer - Siu Mun Li

Name: Siu Mun Li      
Job Title: Head of Temporary Works Engineering, Multiplex Construction Europe
Location: London

 
When did you realise that a career in engineering was right for you? Was there a particular moment in your life?

From a very young age, I followed my dad when he was doing DIY and always wanted to have a go myself. I remember my mum telling my dad not to let me see him using a hammer because I would also want to hammer things but maybe not the right things! I have always had a love of Lego, building things and also taking things apart to see how they worked but I never really knew what an engineer was.

I only realised that a career in engineering was right for me about three months into my first job, I loved it and still love it today! 
 
What does an average day look like for you?

It’s hard to say what an average day looks like because I don’t think I have ever had teo days the same in over 23 years.

The nature of my current role as the Head of Temporary Works Engineering covering all our UK projects requires a lot of communication and liaising with engineers and project teams.

One minute I could be in a co-ordination meeting, the next minute I could be either on a general site visit, providing construction training to future talent or problem-solving site issues that may arise. This is what makes construction and engineering an exciting industry to work in.
 
How did you get into this career? What qualifications did you get?

I can’t say that I really knew what I wanted to do as a career.  I didn’t know what an engineer did when I was choosing my A-Levels but I took a risk on the advice of a family friend who was a civil engineer and said that I would make a good engineer one day. 

Based on this and after my A-Levels, I chose to study Civil Engineering at university and came out of university with a Civil Engineering degree.

Did you face any challenges with your career decision as a woman engineer?

My parents were more concerned about my choice of career than I was.  As a woman who is short and of an ethnic minority entering a male-dominated industry, I understand their concerns but when I started my career, I was unfazed and thought I could do anything I put my mind to.

There have been challenges throughout my career, I started as the only female on site and men often assumed that I had an admin role as it was very rare to be female and an engineer over 20 years ago.  Fortunately, this mindset has shifted, and we have many more amazing female engineers in the industry now.
 
What advice would you give to young girls considering a career in engineering?

Just do it!  You can be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do if you have passion, drive and a positive mind. 

There are always people around who are more than willing to help and encourage future construction professionals so don’t be afraid to try something new and go after your dreams.
 
Do you have any standout memories/funny/interesting stories from your career as an engineer?

I have so many funny, amazing and interesting stories and memories from my career as an engineer, where do I start? On my very first project I was on site doing some monitoring and I could see the survey manager setting out some points for construction in the river. It was low tide; his assistant was in the river and he was approximately 100m away.

As his assistant was moving to locate the points, with the soft mud of the riverbed, her feet were slowly getting stuck in the mud to the point that she couldn’t get out.  She had to be rescued by the site team and we needed the crane to assist. She came out of the river without her boots as they were stuck fast and to this day, I don’t know if the boots remained in the river or not.

Working on Crossrail, I was responsible for co-ordinating and managing the largest archaeological excavation in Europe (at that time). We excavated 3,500 skeletons from the Bedlam burial ground prior to the construction of the Liverpool Street Crossrail station.